Last Resort
by Eraasay
Summary: The past that nearly destroyed the Tolan is now the only thing that can save them. The part SG1 was never told. Nareem gets to be a hero, and we get a space battle, eventually. And will he learn how to really win Sam's heart?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the TV people.

Author's Note: Hi! This is an idea I had ever since I saw that one episode with the Goa-uld manipulating the Tolan to make weapons that could be out of phase to go through the SGC iris, but that was a long time ago and I never saw the one that came after it, so I'm sure my continuity is miserable. But it makes sense in my head... AU, obviously...

Explosions went up all around them as they ran, and Death Gliders screamed through the air. Then they were at the Stargate.

"Wait!"

She stopped for just a moment and looked at Nareem.

"I...I hope this isn't good-bye..." he told her.

"Me, too."

And then she was gone, through the Stargate, and he was running again. A blast hit near him, the shock wave almost knocking him over. Around a corner he came to an old building. He went in and, entering the right code into the scanner, stepped into the turbolift shaft. It carried him down, at a speed that seemed unacceptable. Everything was so urgent, everything was happening outside. He had to get there faster. But there was nothing to do but wait as the turbolift went down and down, clicking as each level was passed. Nothing to do but wait, and think.

Nareem pressed his back against the metal wall, and slid down. His jumpsuit, in the traditional Tolan grey tones, was ripped and burnt in places, from the Death Gliders' runs. As his heartbeat returned to normal, his racing thoughts refused to slow as well.

The Goa-uld, never a threat before, had managed to overcome their most advanced, most reliable defenses. Then they had used that new-found power to black-mail the Tolan High Counsel into making weapons for them, weapons that would be able to destroy the Tau-ri's base, the rest of the Tolan's defenses, and any ships he knew of. He had been so trusting, so naive. His people had been at peace so long. They had become arrogant in their superior defenses. At first he hadn't been able to believe this could even happen. It wasn't supposed to happen.

It had taken SG-1, who was more than familiar with the ways of violence and conspiracy, to make him see. And so the weapons had been destroyed, and now the Goa-uld were beginning to firestorm his world.

Nareem put his head in his hands. Now he understood. It had taken this, the likely destruction of his new world, to remind the Tolan. Now he remembered how they had developed their advanced technology, the shields, the cannons, the phase-shift devices, all the systems, and even their version of the Stargate, that he had taken for granted until now. It had been through absolute necessity and perhaps desperation that they had achieved their superiority.

This was all before the destruction of their sister planet, the part of the story of their history that they had never told the Tau-ri, the part they assumed had never happened. And it was in remembering this history, of so long ago, that Nareem knew without a doubt what he had to do. A secret that he had long buried in shame and contempt and that he thought he would never have to deal with again.

But, just like in those old days of desperation, he realized that there was something that was worth fighting for, even killing for, and that was the survival and freedom of his people. He must save the Tolan form the Goa-uld. The rest of his life, and his reservations, were even now being blasted away by the Death Gliders' strafing runs, and from the Mothership in orbit.

Maybe this was why the Tau-ri did what they did.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hi! Here it is, chapter TWO! It's a little longer, too. And I got my first review, for this story! Happiness! Thanks to you! In the next chapter, more will be explained, maybe...

The shiny, sophisticated turbolift beeped at Nareem to tell him that he'd arrived at his destination. The chamber was very far underground the rest of the city. Almost two mountains worth of solid rock now separated him from the surface.

The door slid open. Calming his nerves, Nareem got up and stepped through to find another door.

He spoke more authorization codes that, now that the old man was dead, only he knew. After much ado, the door whooshed open. The lights inside the chamber turned on automatically as they sensed his motion.

He stepped over to the control consoles and started activating them. Icons lit up as systems powered. Glass panels slid slowly down from the ceiling, the lighting shifted, and on the panels was a near-space heads-up display.

It showed a red delta shape that represented the Goa-uld Mothership that was flying impossibly through the blue line layers of complex shields and defense arrays that surrounded the planet. In another view, wing-shapes glided across the city. One by one, critical positions blinked and faded to grey outlines.

Nareem activated the long-range Tolan communication device. He had to tell the Tau-ri what was happening, and what he as going to do. They, his only real allies, had to know. He had to tell Samantha.

"They're coming!" His voice was panicked. "The Goa-uld! Tollanus is under fire! Soon they will reach –"

His transmitted words were cut off when the little icon for the inter-galactic communications tower blinked then faded, as a wing-shape passed over it.

He saw another screen that monitored the Stargate. It had been active for a while now. Some of his people were fleeing through the wormhole.

Two whole new squadrons moved in over the city. Nareem watched in horror as everything started to blink, even the building directly above him. Then the heads-up display and almost all of the systems cut out.

A minute passed.

The lights flickered once.

With an effort, Nareem remembered that the systems he needed now were not connected to or reliant on the city above. He turned on the auxiliary power and accessed a system with a label that he hadn't really thought about in many years, and pushed some green icon-buttons.

The wall to his right slid into the ceiling to reveal another, larger, chamber. Inside was a white and silver Tolan Stargate. It was an almost exact replica of the one on the surface. It had been built and put here when they had first come to this world, just as policy, to comply with law once made. The console surface opened to reveal a compartment, the bottom of which rose to bring its contents up. Nareem picked up the armband, fastening it around his left forearm.

The Stargate whirled as he dialed it. This Stargate only connected to its counterpart. It used the standard seven-point address, but would not connect with just any Stargate address he put in. Only the right set of constellation symbols would activate it. And it didn't matter where either Gate was in the Universe, they would still connect.

The naqueda energy whooshed out and then pooled inside the ring, waiting for him.

Nareem pushed a sequence of panels on the armband, which sent out a special code through the Stargate to its counterpart; the Gate receiving the wormhole. The code would deactivate a device similar in purpose to the Tau-ri's iris. But, far less primitive than an iris, this device would demolecularize anything that tried to pass through it. In short, he would turn into a nice little pile of dust on the floor.

Just to be safe, though, he turned on his phase-shift device.

Everything was ready, and if he didn't hurry, the wormhole would soon destabilize and turn off. He closed his eyes and said a last mental farewell to his second home world, then stepped through the Stargate.

Pinpoints of light blurred and smeared and swirled around him so fast. And then they stopped, and the world coalesced into reality again.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Lo and behold, here it is! Chapter three! Dun dun dun!

Nareem staggered away from the shimmering energy of the Stargate. Its blue silver color was tinged by the redish field he had just passed through, the demolecularizer device.

He collapsed on the cold metal floor against a stack of cargo containers. He felt nauseous and sharp pain all over. If he had had the strength, he would have screamed for the pain. His head felt like it had been put through a shifter, the kind little kids use to play with sand.

Everything was dark. In the back of his mind he thought that he must be unconscious. '...no wait, then there wouldn't be any pain...I must be blind...'

A few minutes passed. The aftereffects of the demolecularizer device gradually wore off, and his thoughts started to clear, slowly.

He wasn't blind after all, the lights were off. He was in a storage room. A storage room on...

The realization of his location hit him with almost as much shock as his actual arrival had.

He had made it. He was alive, and his destination still existed, after all this time. They were still alive. They had to be. They had to be...

An alarm was blaring. It screeched, "Intruder, Intruder..." in a calm but harsh voice.

Nareem just lay there on the ground, his eyes squeezed closed, and tried to listen to what was happening.

Boots pounded down a long hallway nearby, then two pairs stopped, and a hatch whooshed open somewhere to his right. The lights flickered on, and Nareem heard two voices.

"Hey! Someone's in here!"

"It's the intruder!"

"Are you sure?"

"Who else would it be, Kerlan? That's not a Fleet uniform he's wearing!"

The man bent over and prodded Nareem in the ribs with the butt of his weapon. He groaned and tried to turn his head to look at them.

"I mean, he doesn't look like he's doing much invading."

"Kerlan—Look at that! It's glowing! That's the old Stargate! The surface-to-ship one from the war!"

"I know what it is!"

There was a pause. Nareem was recovering. He started to breath easier.

Kerlan said, "I'll report in. You'd better go and bring Security, and a Medic." Then, as an after thought, he added, "And the Captain."

One set of booted feet left.

Each second Nareem felt better, the painful aftereffects fading away. He opened his eyes to look up at the person still standing there. After talking softly into a small comlink he took up position supposedly guarding Nareem, his weapon was pointed in his general direction, but the young man's eyes kept moving from the Stargate to his prone body in amazement and disbelief.

The young soldier, his name must be Kerlan, wore a uniform that was the traditional Tolan grey tones but it also had two thin black stripes that ran down the pants. And he wore a red overjacket that had various military insignia and a short rank bar on the front.

His weapon was a nasty, efficient, supped-up rifle version of the energy guns that the security teams used back home. It was the military model, one the Tolan people had not needed to use for many years. It reminded him dimly of SG-1's favorite weapon, though much more advanced, of course.

The soldier's comlink beeped at him and more people arrived outside the door of the small, cramped storage room.

Nareem took a deep breath. He moved into a sitting position. He was so tired, everything was so crazy, and his head still ached a little. But none of that mattered. All that was important now was what he had to do next, everything he had to tell them.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Nareem sat on a bed in the sick-bay. It was white and softly lit, a comforting refuge for the sick or the injured away from the gray metal of the rest of the cramped ship. He was on the patrol ship, _Sky's Grasp_, of the exiled Tolan Fleet.

They had given him fresh clothes and now the ship's doctor was bandaging him.

"Only mild burns and lacerations. He's got some shrapnel in the leg pretty deep, there, though. Looks like concrete. It shouldn't take long to get out, but I'd like to put him under." She'd reported into her comlink.

A small voice had come back out of it, replying, "Very well, Doctor. First I'd like to talk to him. Then you can do your work."

"Yes, sir."

Now the Captain stood before him. He was older than Nareem, and looked just like a war veteran. His uniform was the same as the two men Nareem had seen earlier; classic Tolan grays plus a red jacket, only the shoulders of his were black and he wore an officer's hat smartly on his head. He had dark shin and a not-completely-stern, weathered face.

He introduced himself, "I am Captain Seehan, and you are aboard the _Sky's Grasp_, Fleet patrol and scout." He spoke in a command tone that would discourage any good spacer from interrupting. "Now, as a patrol ship, I have ended up with quite a few stowaways and hitchhikers. Most were fringe scum, looking to get a ride or something else for nothing. Here's your chance to prove to me that you are worth keeping this side of vacuum."

Despite his harsh words and blatant threat, the man eyed Nareem's features, and the small pile of his clothes and armband equipment on a table. He was interested and actually more than willing to listen.

"My name is Nareem," he started. He had decided to speak in Old Tolan. Few foreigners could speak it, or even recognize it if they heard it.

Captain Seehan's eyebrows went up, just a tiny bit.

He was so nervous. Well, he'd better start his story at the beginning. "Well, you know what happened to Tolanus' sister world. After the Fleet...ah...seceded from the Tolan, it took many years but your predictions were right. Our world continued on its unstable orbit into the sun. We managed to evacuate almost all of the survivors. The shuttles were in the air, and lava was approaching the Stargate..." He told in short the story of how they had met SG-1, been "rescued" to their primitive, militaristic planet, "had some difference," but managed to finally settle on an un-easy alliance. He, of course, left out personal details. "...The Nox agreed to help us..."

Nareem recounted recent history, telling of their clashes with the ever more reckless Goa-uld, and of their strengthening alliance with the Tau-ri of SG-1.

Finally he explained how the Goa-uld Mothership had somehow managed to bypass their planetary shields and defenses, and then black-mailed the Tolan Leadership into submission. "He made us create these weapons for them, nukes with our phase-shift technology. He told us to send one through the Stargate to the Tau-ri where it would penetrate their iris, but..." He finished with how they had sabotaged the plan and he had escaped.

"How did you know the Stargate would work?" The Captain inquired.

Nareem replied, "I didn't... This was the last resort. There was no other choice. It was too late."

The doctor looked up from her monitors, "This is enough, Captain, we need to work now. You can talk more later when he comes around."

He nodded to her. To Nareem, he said, "I'll be back." Captain Seehan left the sick-bay, wondering why Nareem had come to them and what he could possibly expect to come of it. Seehan definitely had a bad feeling about this.

The doctor instructed Nareem to lie down then put a cold metal object against his neck. It clicked, and he felt the anesthetic start to move through his body. He drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5 Interlude

Chapter 5 – Interlude

His mind carried Nareem away from the white sick-bay, and from his current situation, to dream of another time and another place.

Back on the Tau-ri's beloved world, he stood in the little command room overlooking the larger room that held their Stargate. It was dimly lit and quiet, and empty except for him and Sam.

She smiled at him, a little sadly. After all, he would be leaving soon. She was so pretty, just like an angel in the old stories. He touched her short blonde hair, and kissed her gently. Nareem savored one of his favorite memories.

They were only interrupted when someone came up the metal stairs and coughed awkwardly to get their attention. Nareem pulled back, embarrassed.

Nareem looked behind him, to see who it was. But something was wrong. He didn't remember that Daniel Jackson looked like that, his face was different.

The archeologist's voice morphed as he spoke, "You do not need to know my name, or that of my master." He lowered his chin in a glare at Nareem and for a second light flashed from his blue eyes.

In horror, Nareem turned and ran, dragging Sam with him by the hand. They were running through the corridors of the SGC. The lights were all on now, but they didn't meet anyone.

He paused for a moment to catch his breath. Sam wasn't even winded.

He thought he heard a sound. Soon a low rumbling came closer and louder and built into the roar of a Death Glider. It roared over them, and as it passed, two parallel lines of lasers ploughed into the ground and the walls of the corridor. Everything was noise, bright light, red lasers, and the burning heat, and dirt and shrapnel flying all around them.

They were caught in the middle of it. Certain they were going to die, the two clung to eachother. Sam opened her eyes and shouted to Nareem over the roar, "Look!"

He looked up, and saw that the fire and the smoke and the shrapnel were all swirling around them, dancing together in a fast irregular mess. The dance was trying to show them the harsh violent pain of death, in an instant, but it seemed to go on forever.

Finally, through the brightness and the haze that surrounded them, Sam saw something. It wasn't far away, and seemed to shine a light silver-blue. The calm light rippled and spread, reaching out to them in a splash. Still huddled together, they were sucked in.

Time and distance warped around Nareem. He could see stars flash by and blur around him, but he couldn't turn and look at Sam.

On a peaceful planet, they stepped out of a Stargate. In an instant Nareem recognized it as his home, the beautiful world the Tolan had colonized. Everything was still and all around them were the soft grays and greens.

They stood on the steps that led to the Stargate. Nareem turned and looked at Sam. She was wearing her dress blues, with insignia pinned near her shoulders, and dress pants. She looked cute in her Air Force hat, with her blonde hair tucked behind her ears.

Nareem smiled at her, "I hope this isn't good-bye."

"It won't be." She said, then leaned over and gently kissed him on the cheek. "Don't let it be."

She turned and left. Standing there alone, Nreem looked to the sky. He saw ships, so many ships, flying over the city. They were distant, be he could still make out the shapes of each one. They were very familiar. Their shapes reminded him of buildings, landmarks he had known as a child. Just watching them pass, in their forms he could remember. This was the Great Tolan Fleet, as it had been so so many years ago.

As the anesthetic slowly wore off, Nareem awoke in the sick-bay. It was quiet and dark; night-shift on the ship.

He closed his eyes again, remembered his dream, thinking.

What he was doing here, what he was going to do, was like what SG-1 did every day. He had to succeed, it was the only way. Maybe, when this was all over, he'd see them again. He would tell Sam, Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c all about what had happened. Mainly Sam, though.

Once she saw that he could be brave, just like she was every day, maybe then she would understand and he could win her respect, and her love, not just compassion or friendship.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A brilliant starfield filled the long view panels that wrapped half way around the small meeting room. The overhead lights were off; the room was lit only by starlight. The view was so bright with so many stars so close together, though no one was as close to the ship to be a sun.

'We must be near the Core.' thought Nareem, '...very far from home.'

The soft silvery glow that filled the room glinted off the polished table and almost reminded Nareem of a clear night on a mountain just a year or two ago.

"It is beautiful, isn't it? Before the war my family had a star-room in the north country that almost looked like this."

He finally turned his eyes from the view outside the panels to look at Captain Seehan, seated at the head of the table. The table was wooden, uncommon among the Tolan, but did have a permaglass console before the captain which was much more familiar.

"But it is the history after the war, and the secession, that is of more concern to you, I'm sure." Seehan continued. "After the Progressives and their so-called Confederacy seceded and the Fleet left...Am I right?"

Nareem answered, "Yes, we never knew what happened once the Fleet cut loose from the tracking system. I can't say that many wondered about it after we started to feel the effects of Tolanus' decaying orbit, and you were never spoken of in the years since."

Seehan exhaled loudly. "You always were a proud people, you Isolationists."

Nareem almost winced at the old term. He did not appreciate it so much anymore...so much had changed.

"But the Fleet was never forgotten." he said.

"No indeed." The Captain leaned back in his chair and he began to tell his story.

"...We led a few campaigns against the old enemy, but that was years ago...This exiled Tolan Fleet has wandered between many stars, and our ideals have taken the same beating our ships have. But they have not been broken, and few ships have been lost."

He sounded like he was giving a talk to his troops, which he had probably done more than once, Nareem thought to himself.

"We've made an alliance with the Tok-ra. They wish to gain technological experience–or to convince us of our 'common enemy' the Goa-uld, which may be more true now—and they offer us their knowledge of fleet tactics. They may not now but the Tok-ra had great fleets of warships for a thousand years..."

Eventually Nareem asked the old sailor, "How many ships are left?"

Seehan crossed his arms and looked at Nareem. "This is not the Great Fleet that paraded the skies of Tolanus on the Day of Secession. Our resources are a fraction of what the designers required. That is why my ship is our here away from the rest of the Fleet," he made an expansive gesture towards the starscape outside the view panels, "searching for raw materials; fuel, water, food, space-gas, anything."

"But I suspect I know what it is you really want to ask."

Nareem tried to hide the flash of surprise he felt. "You do?" he said. His plan really wasn't so hard to guess... But it was so important and he needed to find out all he could.

"Yes, and I will quickly loose authority to provide the answers you seek. I am, after all, only a patrol ship Captain. Who you need to speak to is the Supreme Commander of the Fleet. We will rejoin the rest of the Fleet, and then I will take you to him."

Heeding his words, a short wave of discontinuity passed along the ship. Outside the long view panels the starlight coalesced and then seemed to explode into a fluctuating glow of soft colors as the two estranged Tolan watched hyperspace pass by the ship.

Or maybe Nareem had seen him casually touch his permaglass console. He couldn't remember.

"Thank you, Captain. You're doing the right thing."

Author's Note: Okay, I know it's been like two months since I last updated, but I did not forget this story! Well, not for long...Anyway! Here is the next chapter, and I have a few more in the planning! Iamgoingto bring in another familiar character! Can you guess who he is? So, how do ya'll like this chapter?


	7. Chapter 7

Last Resort

Chapter 7

Several hours later Nareem found himself again in the Captain's small meeting room, staring out the observation windows. The Captain had somehow made the permaglass console at the head of the table disappear. Now he stood watching, his hands clasped behind his back.

He let his thoughts wander through the paths of his memory like the blurred light of hyperspace transit, light energy with no coherence as it shifted from the purest white to shades of blue and purple.

He had only been a child during the war, but he knew its history as well as any veteran. He did remember, however, the times of the destruction of Tollanus' sister world, then the secession. And then had come the days when even the best scientists had said that their world's decaying orbit was, sometimes, bordering on erratic.

The desolation of his home had come much quicker than anyone had anticipated, and definitely happened faster than they had told SG-1. It had hardly taken a generation for all the animals to die off, victim of radiation, volcanic activity, and countless things. Nareem's amazement at the Tau-ri's biodiversity had been completely real, though. He had loved glimpsing the wildlife with Sam, having grown up and lived in a city for most of his life. To walk with his beautiful friend in the mountains...

Soft brown eyes unfocussed, lost in thought, Nareem wondered what Sam would think of what he was doing now, and of his plan. Would she do the same thing, if it had happened to her world and it had been her people the Goa-uld Mothership had fired on? In his heart, he knew she would. She would be proud of him. He had to remember that. Really, it was the only thing that had let him come so far.

He only wished he could talk to her about it.

His thoughts were interrupted by the whoosh of the automatic door-hatch sliding open as someone entered the small room. Keeping his back to the door, Nareem saw the reflection of the man in the permaglass viewport. He did not look Tollan.

The man came around the table to stand next to Nareem, looking out at the view. Nareem turned to look him full in the face. This had to be a Tok-ra. He wore the tan rustic clothes and not-so-subtle zat gun. Taller than Nareem, he had blonde hair and light blue eyes.

"Hello." Nareem greeted him.

"Hello, I am Martouf, of the Tok-ra." The alien man introduced himself, in a slight accent. "As I'm sure the Captain told you, I am attached to the Fleet."

"Yes, he did. I have never had the opportunity to meet a Tok-ra before, Martouf, but I do know of your people." He said. He knew the Tok-ra. They were drifters, for thousands of years fighting a slowly losing war with the Goa-uld.

"You and me, we really are not that dissimilar as you may think." Martouf said, "Neither of us have a homeworld."

"That's where you are wrong. I do have a home, even though the one I grew up in is now destroyed. I'm sure the Captain has told you the story." Nareem replied, giving him a significant look.

"Yes, he has." The Tok-ra said in a quiet but confident voice. He turned back to looking out the viewport at passing hyperspace.

Nareem's first response was being angry at this man, who obviously saw in the exiled Tollan Fleet only an opportunity for an advantage over their long-time sworn enemy. He just wanted to use the ships to attack the Goa-uld's, longing for a new victory in their thousands of years of warfare. And these ships would do a huge amount of damage to the conventional Goa-uld mothership.

But he couldn't help the little thought, 'Isn't that just what I want too, why I even came here? Why I didn't follow Sam though the Stargate... We are here for the same ultimate goal, really, despite how primitive I had always been told the Tok-ra were...'

It was something to think about.

Author's Note: Okay, do ya'll like Martouf being the new character? I know, I haven't posted in a long time, partly since I couldn't decide whose side Martouf was gonna be on... But do you still want me to continue this story? Do you like how it's going? I promise more action and meeting the Commander of the Fleet soon! (soon chapters, that is!)


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